As you’ve likely heard, today marks the first day of the historic Raj Rajaratnam trial, the government’s biggest insider trading case to date. Jury selection kicked off this morning, and while we wait for a few hundred people to answer questions designed to reveal whether or not they have prejudices toward everyone from hedge fund managers, to Wall Street in general, to Sri Lankans to the big-boned, we thought it best to come with a list of character witnesses we’d like to see take the stand. Rajaratnam has already said he’ll speak on his own behalf and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is slated to make an appearance as well. But there are some lesser-known names who could probably tell an even richer tale about Raj and we’re just going to put their names out there and hope the universe does the right thing. Some of them would work in his favor and some not but all would add a certain je ne said quoi to the proceedings. They include: Continue reading »
tasers
Raj Rajaratnam (and lady friend Danielle Chiesi) know that there is “not even a chance” they will do one day in jail, because they’re innocent, and didn’t do anything wrong. Given. Still, Raj-Raj has to pay some lawyers to prove it, and representation does not come cheap. That presumably has nothing to do with the Galleon founder recently selling his 60 Sutton Place South apartment, for $1.575 million. He could’ve needed to free up the cash for a lot of things, like the money to pay a few more analysts to be tased, but this time with an even more powerful gun, and to hire actors for his annual April Fool’s Day joke (last year it was it was a dwarf pretending to be the Galleon’s latest “small-cap” stocks analyst; this year is anyone’s guess!). In any event, while the big man will probably be spending most of his time up at the house in Greenwich, he will need a place to stay when he’s too drunk to make the trip home. Someone should help a brother out.
When we last checked in with beauty queen and Raj Rajaratnam gal-pal Danielle Chiesi, she didn’t have much to say re: whether or not she and her boy were guilty of insider trading, as has been alleged, preferring instead to let her new makeover do the talking. Today she opened up to Reuters’ Matt Goldstein to let the world know a couplea things, namely that there’s no way in hell she and Raj-Raj will do time, that the Galleon manager didn’t hurt anybody (except for the employee whose body was temporarily disabled by an electric shock) and that he’s the most generous man she’s ever known (this we know is true, as said tasee was paid 5 g’s for her time).
“There is not even a chance we will do one day in jail,” Chiesi said in a recent telephone interview. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
She said she considers Rajaratnam a good friend and it is “an honor and a privilege” to stand next to him in court. She and Rajaratnam are due back in court on Feb. 11.
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